Senator Alexander Wiley, who advocates liberalization of the present DP law, today urged that “outstanding leaders of America’s three great religious faiths get together around a conference table and agree upon minimum points” in the revision of the DP law for submission to the Judiciary Committees of the Senate and House.
“Thus, instead of having the Judiciary committees of both chambers confronted by divergence of opinion on every count, perhaps we could secure a maximum of unity on as many issues as possible,” Sen., Wiley stated. “This will simplify the problem of the Congress; it will simplify and speed revision of the law; and it will be in fullest keeping with the American tradition of unity end brotherhood.” He made this suggestion in a letter addressed to Rabbi Philip S. Bernstein, former advisor on Jewish affairs to the U.S. command in Europe. He proposed the following points to serve as basis for the revised DP immigration legislation.
1. “The so-called cut-off date of eligibility should be Revised from the Dec. 22,1945, date specified in the DP law to a later date, either April 21, 1947, or a later date beet calculated to include 150,000 or so individuals heretofore excluded from the law.
2. “The provision of the law requiring that a specific job and specific “housing be assured in advance for each DP should be replaced by a provision as follows: a validated commitment by the sponsoring individual, church or other organization that the DP will not become a public charge on the people of the United States. In so doing, we will bring the provisions of the DP law into line with the provisions of the general immigration law which prevents admission of those who would become public charges.
3. “By all means, a third revision should be an elimination of that provision which mortgages future quotas.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
